$15B bailout from Russia deflates pro-EU protests in Ukraine

Thursday

Dec 19, 2013 at 12:01 AMDec 19, 2013 at 10:59 AM

KIEV, Ukraine - Ukrainian officials praised a financial-aid package from Russia as the country's only hope to prevent economic collapse, although it was signed in defiance of a large and sustained protest in the capital.

KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials praised a financial-aid package from Russia as the country’s only hope to prevent economic collapse, although it was signed in defiance of a large and sustained protest in the capital.

“Today, I can firmly announce that the crisis moment has passed,” the country’s prime minister, Mykola Azarov, said in comments reported by the Ukrainian news media yesterday. “We have a new and firm perspective of confidence. We will maintain social and financial stability. Now, nothing threatens the financial and economic stability of Ukraine.”

On Tuesday, President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin of Russia said that Russia would come to the rescue of its financially troubled neighbor, providing $15 billion in loans and a steep discount on natural-gas prices.

The announcement seemed to have a deflating effect on the protesters, a tired and haggard group after spending more than three weeks encamped on Independence Square. A church choir sang. Protest leaders asked for patience as they scrambled to devise a new strategy.

The protests were ignited by the government’s last-minute failure to sign political and free-trade accords with Europe, which had been seen as an alternative to the Russian deal. The protesters’ demands, though, had expanded to seeking punishment for the police, accused of violently attacking demonstrators, and the resignation of Azarov.

The government is now prepared to negotiate with the protesters over those demands, Viktor Pinchuk, one of Ukraine’s most powerful businessmen, said. Concessions from Yanukovych on these domestic political issues could defuse the demonstrations, even though the main demand, for European integration, went unmet.

“People came to the streets today for values and against violence,” he said. “Now, they are not there for the association agreement,” the name of the wide-ranging trade deal with the European Union that Yanukovych rejected.

Yesterday, opposition leaders said they had moved closer to obtaining enough votes in Parliament to dismiss the government of Azarov, signaling the shift in emphasis to domestic political issues.

The lack of a major reaction in the streets left Putin, for the moment, seeming to have the upper hand over Europe and the U.S. in the contest for Ukraine, a former Soviet republic that is culturally, economically and militarily intertwined with Russia.